Living for the Future

Though curved like a question mark,
she walks without a Zimmer frame.
Will she ever veer from
the narrow,
nonsensical
dirt road?

She earns,
mopping, scrubbing, laundering, and currying.
She’s often gifted with
rice, tea powder, jaggery, sari, soap,
and so on.
Thanks to the munificence
of her mistress.
She saves and stores,
living in parsimonious penury.
She loses her delicious delights
in spending tension.
A schlock existence –
everything safely decays in her store.

There’s certainly a spark of work
(even at the dog-end)
of her life.
But when will she live on the earth?

*First published in The Literary Hatchet, and then in Native Skin.